HolyMoly

True ... but suspect "driving on the wrong side of the road" was the funny part of that camper photo. AT&T is a U.S. company ... and the Good Sam Club is a North American entity. It could be that the people doing the photo shoot on that ad reversed the negative of the film and that no one with Good Sam or AT&T noticed it (grin).

And therein lies the rub for me. All I see are grandiose claims with no way to prove them. And, the RIAA seems to be strangely undisturbed by their presence. Perhaps there's a reason. I installed an earlier version. But, when I discovered the software added voluminous entries to my registry ... entries that were not deleted upon uninstall ... I did a complete sweep of my system (and registry) to delete that puppy completely. Maybe they're legit. Maybe not. But, I won't bet on their legitimacy. Every other law enforcement agency (or quasi law enforcement agency) has used the "sting" operation to catch the uncatchable. Why not the RIAA, the MPAA and the BSA?

Speaking of VOIP service, I signed up with Vonage.com and am waiting for their "special box" to arrive in the mail. $24.99 per month (plus two unescapable Fed taxes totalling $2.25) for unlimited local calls and 500 anytime minutes a month to anywhere in the U.S./Canada. Will give a full report when the box arrives and I have a chance to try it out.

I use Netscape 7.1 which blocks all pop-ups if you configure it that way. Love it.

CLICK HERE to see the 170 results of a Google search for the last KLite version or HERE for the 202 results of a Google search for the last KLite codec pack. Sharman may have shut down the "official" KLite site ... but they're a long way from shutting down access to KLite itself (or the codec pack). BTW, if Sharman figures out a way to modify Kazaa so it blocks KLite users from the FastTrack network, how long do you think it will be before someone else creates a "new" KLite to circumvent it (grin) ... releasing it more discretely on the web? What comes around goes around ... and then usually comes around again, hehe.

"21st Century Schizoid Man" (King Crimson)

Brief note first. Gonna be offline for about a week while I move to a bigger place. The move won't take long ... but my cable internet provider will. Now, regarding you motor vehicle above, I suspect premium and unleaded are a bit after its time. What that vehicle owner needs to do is pump some Ethyl.

"Visitations" (White Noise) -- weird song. Man/woman get in car accident ... he dies, she lives ... she's crying and pleading, "Please don't go..." ... and his ghost is trying to talk to her, but she can't hear him.

fan

Sometimes, when your gas grill runs out of propane, you might be tempted to try an alternative fuel source:

Two Italian-American men were eating lunch in their workplace cafeteria and having a conversation. One table away from them, a female co-worker was listening in: "Well, itsa like dis," said one man to the other. "First, Emma come. Den I come. Den two asses a-come togetha. Den I come again. Den two asses a-come togetha and I come again. Den, two pee lata, I come again." The woman jumped to her feet, tapped the man on his shoulder and said, "Would you mind keeping your filthy mouth to yourself??? Otherwise, I'll turn you in for sexual harrassment!!!" The man stood up and barked back, "Whassa-matta fo you, bitch? I was only teachin' ma friend how to spell-a Mississippi."

Three Italian nuns died and stood before St. Peter. St. Peter welcomed them all and said, "God is most pleased with the work you have done for Him on Earth ... so pleased, in fact, that he's authorized me to grant you each a miracle. For a six month period, God will let you to return to Earth to live as any other woman you've ever wanted to be." The first nun says, "Oh, I've always wanted to be Sophia Loren." "Very well," says St. Peter. He snaps his fingers and off she goes. The second nun says, "I've often dreamed of being Gina Lolobridgida." "Fine," St. Peter said. He snaps his fingers and off she goes. The third nun wore thick glasses and carried a magazine in one hand. She says, "I want to be Sara Papalini." "Sara Papalini?" St. Peter winces. "Well, I know that Sophia and Gina were popular actresses in their day ... but frankly, I've never heard of Sara Papalini." "Well, there's an article about her right here," the nun says as she hands St. Peter the magazine. St. Peter looks at it and giggles, "You've obviously misread this article. It's titled Sahara Pipeline laid by 10,000 men."

Well (grin), I notice they got no comment from the son-in-law ... who may like Guns-N-Roses better than they do. I hope they find a way to beat it anyway ... innocent or otherwise.

"Bang A Gong" (T-Rex)

1) love plugged-in blues (Steve Vai, Ry Cooder, Stevie Ray Vaughan). 2) divorced 3) work too much

My tastes in music are, shall we say, "varied." And although I speak no foreign language, I enjoy listening to Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean music. To tell you the truth, I also listen to a lot of English-language music whose lyrics I either don't remember or don't listen to ... simply because the music itself is good enough. Anyhoo, I wanted to post this for people who don't understand why foreign music sells well in this country when it seems like it shouldn't. And, as an example, I'm going to use Korean music. This is how "business gets done downtown" by sellers of Korean music ... and the RIAA could learn a trick or two from the Korean music industry. First, the reality. You could watch MTV day and night for a year and never see a music video by a Korean performer. And, only a fraction of the Korean-American population can afford to plunk down the big bucks to get the Korean satellite channels through K.I.S.B. And while there might be the odd Korean-language radio station here and there, there's nothing quite like actual music (or music-videos) to generate interest and sales in any performer. So ... what do the Koreans do? YesAsia is perhaps the largest seller/distributor of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese-language music and videos in North America (if not the world). In fact, a visit to their website makes me suspicious that they're really a closet subsidiary of Amazon.com. Currently, from their HQ in San Bruno, California, they market over 3,000 Korean-language music CDs alone - and all are priced substantially lower than most CDs sold by RIAA member labels. Note that these CDs are also imported CDs - and the cost of shipping them from Korea (plus any import taxes/duties) are already included in those prices - making the prices charged for RIAA member-label CDs seem even more ridiculous. YesAsia has a number of affiliates. And, these affiliates make promotional music files available for direct download off the internet. For example, if you wanted to download and listen to the song "Don't Go Away" by Finkl (a very popular group), simply click HERE to begin the download of the song - in ZIP format. Why ZIP? Because most MP3s use high-ASCII Korean-language characters in their names which some systems cannot interpret ... making it impossible to just click on them and just play. HOWEVER, most Korean-speaking users can unzip the files and use embedded Hangul-font recognition to play the files that you or I might not be able to. But, some affiliates make their downloadable files available in English-translated names. And, while most files are MP3s, some are encoded in WMA format. Other affiliates offer promotional music-videos for direct download off the internet. They're generally in either WMV or ASF format to minimize bandwidth and are typically 320x240 pixel videos ... meant for computer viewing. They can be converted to VCD format and burned for TV viewing ... but it's a helaciously long process for the filesize. Here's an example. Click HERE to download the "Missing You" music video of the group, Fly To The Sky (only a 4-meg ASF file). Bottom line? They put the customer in immediate touch with popular Korean artists and, as a result, SELL MORE CDS ... of which the affiliates get a 10% cut on every sale. Easy access to promotional audio and video ... low prices on music CDs ... and a nationwide (if not worldwide) network of affiliates all contribute to the success of Korean labels and, ultimately, Korean artists ... and consequently, piracy of Korean music is far less of a problem than it is for domestic music in the U.S.A. RIAA, listen up. This is really a no-brainer.

Detroit, Oregon - A hunter thought he had found a severed human head in an abandoned mining shed and called the police. Deputy Larry Taylor realized it was just the head of a mannequin when he noticed a price sticker on the forehead. Redondo Beach, California - After a short chase, officer Joseph Fonteno charged the driver of a white Mazda with DUI. The car had been driving down Pacific Coast Highway with the upper half of a traffic light pole laying across its hood. When Fonteno asked the drunk driver about the pole, he responded: "It came with the car when I bought it." Australia - The Australian Police Journal reported that an elderly woman had already used about half of the powder in a custard packet when she discovered an object that appeared to be a large dead cockroach. However, when she brought it to the Health Department, food analysts determined it to be a dried-up human finger. The following investigation revealed that a factory worker had lost two fingers in a machine with rotating blades. One finger had been found. The other had made its way into the custard packet the woman had bought. Pochatello, Idaho - In February, 1997 a 46-year-old female elementary school principal was charged with misdemeanor trespass, based on photographs taken by former police dispatcher Richard Clothier. Clothier had taken the pictures in order to find out who had been running onto his property since September, defecating in his front yard on Sundays. In a pre-trial conference the woman admitted in front of several witnesses that she had indeed defecated 21 times on Clothier's lawn, as well as about 5 times on the lawns of his neighbors. Edmonton, Alberta - The driver of an armored truck appeared to be signaling for help as he repeatedly swung his door open. Six police cruisers chased and stopped the truck, which had been swerving left and right. As it turned out, the driver had simply tried to fan fresh air into the cabin after the other guard had passed gas. Sacramento, California - An elderly gentleman walked into a police station and reported that he thought he had robbed a Wells Fargo Bank a few days earlier. The police officers didn't take his confession too seriously because he was very old, suffered from obvious physical ailments, carried a white hospital bag, and admitted that he wanted to go back into Kaiser Hospital's psychiatric ward. He also couldn't remember the exact day, time, location of the bank, or the nearest cross street. However, after an intensive interrogation, FBI agents found out that the senior citizen had indeed robbed the bank and was responsible for three other bank robberies. Antioch, California - A 22-year-old man was arrested after allegedly ordering a stranger to fix his truck at gunpoint. San Francisco, California - Dan White, a city supervisor, killed Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, another supervisor. White's lawyers said that eating a Twinkie had made his blood sugar level rise so high, it caused his psychotic episode. this resulted in the charges against White being dropped from murder one to involuntary manslaughter. Mount Shasta, California - Joy Glassman, the 60-year-old mother of a firefighter, was charged with five counts of arson. She allegedly set the fires to help her son's career. Boynton, Florida - For their attempt to raise money to attend the police academy, Michael Harrison and Kevin Carter were arrested and charged with armed robbery and murder. Woburn, Massachusetts - In Agust 1996, police investigated complaints about the Anchor Baptist Church. The church allegedly lured kids from a nearby housing project by promising them pizza and then baptized them without their parents' permission. Sanger, Texas - Four teenagers, including the police chief's son, broke into a funeral home. They had planned to steal embalming fluid, dip cigarettes in it and smoke them. But when they couldn't find any fluid, they decided to cut off the finger of a corpse and took turns trying to smoke it. Pennsylvania - A bank robber was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Instead of wearing masks, he and his accomplice had thought that rubbing citric acid on their faces would somehow blur their images on the security cameras. Pikeville, Kentucky - After a fight with his girlfriend's 16-year-old son over rent money, Jesse James Taylor drove himself to the emergency room of the Methodist Hospital with part of a butcher knife in his back and a meat cleaver stuck in his head. After successful surgery, he was released the very next day. Ogden, Utah - A man wearing a clown costume, make-up, a purple wig, and bedroom slippers assaulted a mechanic living in a trailer. The Ogden Standard-Examiner reported that the clown had knocked on the mechanic's door and had demanded to see "Kathy." When the mechanic had explained that he didn't know anyone named Kathy, the clown had accused him of having an affair with her, grabbed the lamp, hit him over the head and ran away. Wandsworth, England - In 1993, Karl Watkin was sentenced to 18 months in prison for pretending to have sex with a sidewalk. In April, 1996, he was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to 6 years in prison for simulating sexual intercourse with garbage bags. In September, he commited suicide in his cell. Appleton, Wisconsin - Darrell Voeks was arrested for stealing $100,000 worth of farm pigs to pay for breast implants for his favorite stripper at a local club. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Key West, Florida - A restaurant worker killed another as the result of a heated argument over how to put silverware into a dishwasher. Ypsilanti, Michigan - The Ann Arbor News reported that a man failed to rob a Burger King because the clerk told him he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. So the man ordered onion rings, but the clerk informed him that they weren't available for breakfast. The frustrated robber left. St. Peters, Missouri - A gunman robbed a 711 store, but returned the money minutes later because his car wouldn't start. Amazingly, the store clerks came out to the parking lot and gave the robber's car a jump start. Police Officer David Kuppler commented: "We have a very friendly town out here." Niagara Falls, Ontario - The operators of Casino Niagara told a local newspaper that customers urinating around slot machines had become a serious problem. Customers who believed a slot machine would soon pay off were afraid to leave the machines and either wore adult diapers, urinatedinto the platic coin cups or simply on the floor next to the machines. Grande Ronde, Oregon - Sixty-seven-year-old Arthur Mooney died of a heart attack in the Spirit Mountain Casino. While his body lay right there on the floor for an hour, the other customers continued to play the slot machines. Vanuatu, South Pacific - The entire 300-men-strong police force of the island nation was arrested after kidnapping a visiting politician from Australia and attempting to use the hostage as leverage in a dispute with the government concerning overtime pay. Stockholm, Sweden - Customs officers arrested a woman who had tried to smuggle 75 live snakes in her bra. The officers became suspicious when they noticed how the woman kept scratching her chest. Tegucigalpa, Honduras - To combat the spread of HIV, prison officials at the Central Penitentiary decided to encourage male inmates to marry each other, thus vowing to be faithful to just one sexual partner. The same-sex marriages are valid only in the prison. Eight couple have already tied the knot. Scarborough, England - On June 22, 1996, a totally wrecked Ford was found at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff. Police found no sign of the driver but discovered a pile of human feces on the driver's seat. Cameroon - Lynch mobs from several towns hanged three men who had been accused of evil witchcraft. The men supposedly had the ability to make other men's genitalia shrink or even disappear. Similar penis panics have been reported in China, where it is called "shook yang" and in Malaysia, where natives call the superstition "koro". http://www.policehumor.com/dp/1-45.htm

... or, I could always lean a bit further to the left and write in these names:

This coming election year, I have to admit leaning toward a candidate who's not likely to get past the primaries - namely, retired General Wesley Clark. If it's a matchup between Bush and Dean, I think I'll write in a couple of independents:

"Torn" (Natalie Imbruglia)

And??? Did they have any comments, pro or con? The initial startup costs for Vonage are in the neighborhood of $130 bucks (the "special box" and ethernet card) and if they said anything reassuring, it'd put me more at ease.

Future Microsoft Software Already Being Pirated Microsoft said today that it is working closely with the Malaysian government after pirated copies of its next generation computer operating system went on sale years before it is due for release. The software, code named "Longhorn" and designed as the successor to Windows XP, is being sold for less that two US dollars but Microsoft stressed that it is an incomplete version of the product which might be released only in 2006. "Microsoft is aware of the pirated copies of Longhorn being sold in the country," the Malaysian office of the software giant said in a statement. "The version of Longhorn which has been released to-date are developer codes, not fit for business or consumer use as it is not a complete product. "Customers who run the illegal copy of the product are doing so at their own risk since the product is incomplete and customers are exposing themselves to risks and vulnerabilities. "We are working closely with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to ensure that our customers and businesses are protected." A spokeswoman said there were two possible routes for the pirates to have gained access to the software -- either through the leaking of "some code" on the Internet last year or from CDs distributed during a professional development conference in Los Angeles in October. Malaysia, like many parts of Asia, is awash with pirated discs and new movies are sometimes sold on the streets even before they hit the big screen, often for as little as one US dollar per copy. After conducting a nation wide blitz on piracy this year, the government announced it would impose price controls on locally made original discs from January in an attempt to make pirated versions less attractive. However, the local film and music fraternity said the move could backfire and kill the industry, while the United States warned that the price cutting could prompt producers to shun the country. Market forces would compel producers based in the US, which owns 70 percent of disc copyrights, to shift to more lucrative markets, a US official said. Microsoft said the Malaysian government had taken a strong stand against pirates but "fighting piracy is the responsibility of all parties, not only the government and copyright owners." http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/...-6078-0,00.html

"Sleepwalker's Timeless Bridge" (Amon Duul II)

All right, everybody sing ...

True. The fact that the incidence of file sharing is going up at the same time CD sales are going up should give the RIAA a moment of pause. They are probably learning a hard lesson ... that lawsuits will scare off only the most timid and that, even then, the timid will return to file-sharing if RIAA litigation practices aren't "ongoing." I honestly think that the eggheads who decided to sue file-sharers sincerely believed that a one-shot policy of lawsuits over a finite period of time would be the magic bullet to end sharing once and for all. Nope, it has to be ongoing - permanent - and even then, with marginal success. In short, they've backed themselves into a PR corner.